PEP and the Holidays

I'll be hosting family for Christmas, and I see there are a number of BBs that I could do to prepare.

I need to clean.
Family won't eat from a dirty kitchen.
They will need to pee eventually.
Maybe they won't look too closely at the walls and ceiling.

Food is expected.
I'll be feeding at least 8 people.
Cloth napkins would be a nice touch.
Homemade bread is always a hit.

Can't forget last minute gifts.
Maybe a salve for the aunt with crusty heels.
I would personally like wax wraps.
Have you seen the stuffed animals based on kid's drawings?
Jam seems to be popular when you don't know what else to give.

Anyone else hoping to get a couple more BBs done before this month is past?

I like all these ideas! I did make a salve or balm as a gift, but I didn’t take photos of the process so t won’t count for a bb. I do have a father in law who is notoriously difficult to shop for. Maybe I should go through the pep list again and see if there’s something in my skill range he would like. At the very least, I’d gift myself a new bb!

In the gift department there are lots of small items in the PEP roundwood woodworking, textiles, animal care, metalworking (straw) and natural medicine badges.  Most of the PEA badges are very conducive to gift giving and the holidays.  There's even a BB for hosting a gathering of 8+ people.

Nikki Roche wrote:I'll be hosting family for Christmas, and I see there are a number of BBs that I could do to prepare.

Anyone else hoping to get a couple more BBs done before this month is past?

Also, look for some of the little things that you do that might fit into an Oddball Badge Bit:

https://permies.com/wiki/pep-badge-oddball

Here are some Holiday Christmas decor ideas using Poinsettias:

https://permies.com/t/152683/Poinsettia-Euphorbia-pulcherrima

Take pictures and get oddball BBs!

I purchased some cloth napkins recently and I am not happy with the purchase at all. So, my next step is to sew two of them together to make a more adsorbant napkin.  I may use the quilting method my mom taught me or just sew them together in a crosshatch pattern.  I've also used old, kinda worn muslin or cotton bedsheets and pillowcases and turned them into napkins using the same method. You could go so far as to dye the bedsheets or pillowcases if you want to take it that far.  I have no problem setting the table ala Martha Stewart, with mismatched dinnerware and napkins.  It makes the table kinda fun!

I'm not doing as much crafting this year (it's a busy year!), but I did just finish up a wool hot pad for my kids' teacher. She loves the Phineas and Ferb TV show, so I put the platypus from the show on the oven mitt! (I need to get a better picture of it in the daylight, but for now, this will do.)

I also plan on making a needle-felted figure as a present.

I love that there's so many PEP badges that make excellent gifts. Just looks at the textile badge, over the years, I've felted pouches, made a leather-bound notebook, knite/felted mittens (I just realized I knit two pairs of mittens this year, and never took any pictures, because I'd thought I'd already completed that BB. ACK!), sewed a small pillow, wove a basket, knit hats and and scarves and and a baby blanket, sewed an apron, made a leather satchel.

A lot of these BBs just take a few hours, and you gain skills in the process. There's been a few years where everyone got a pouch, or scarf, or hat, or oven mitt, or needle felted figure, and I got really good at those crafts after a while.

A while back, I made this post and tried to post a bunch of easy-ish PEP gift ideas:

Speaking of gifts, I'm reminded of a list I made here on permies 6 years ago (time flies!!) of homemade gift ideas, and how some of those things are now Badge Bits in our PEP course. So, you can learn a new skill, and then give it to to someone! And, if you're like me, everyone on your list will invariably get one of these things, and you'll get lots of practice making them. Maybe, just maybe, after a while you'll get good enough to sell them!

Anyway, here's some gift ideas (bolding the ones that fit in a stocking), that you can get Badge Bits for completing!

felt a bag or a pouch Tiny little pouches are great for putting tiny trinkets into and then putting in the stocking, making it harder for the recipient to guess what's in the stocking]

make a small pillow](I totally made one for my mom when I was a teenager, and one of my first gifts to my husband was a pillow in his favorite colors, and I made little pillows for my kids' toys, too)

crochet a dishcloth(I had a co-worker who made washrags in lots of different colors every year, and let us all pick our favorite three. They were a huge hit!)

weave a basket (if you're like me, it might take you a lot of tries to make a decent basket! But, you could also make one to hold the person's present, too! Just drape it with a pretty dishtowel to hide the contents!)

knit a hotpad (my grandma, mother, and sister-in-law all got nice wool hot pads!))

create a sewing kit (I made one years back for my neice who was interested in sewing. She loved it!)

needle-felt a figure (Guess how I got good at making needle-felted things! All my family members got something, bwahahahaha! Small creations can be made pretty quickly, and fit in a stocking

lots and lots of other things on the textile list!

carve a spoon

compound mallet (make a small one as a first hammer for a small child. My kids love theirs!)

carve a bowl

other impressive things from the round wood badge

homemade pickles!

balm of gilead salve or a calendula salve

elderberry syrup salve

woodburn a sign (my father loves the one I made him!)

build a bird house(we made some for both my mom and my grandpa)

cutting board

a lot of very impressive gift ideas are found in the dimensional woodworking badge!

Seed bomb bon-bons! from the foraging badge!

[url=https://permies.com/wiki/151807/pep-textiles/wax-wraps-PEP-BB-textile#1188054]wax wraps from the nest badge

Hopefully that helps inspire some last-minute PEP gift ideas!